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Behind the scenes, officials attempt to bridge a widening funding gap Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his government needs tens of billions of additional dollars to keep fighting and pay bills through the end of the year. The request couldn’t come at a worse time for European governments, the main donors to Kyiv’s defense against Russia. European officials privately warn they might not be able to foot the bill for everything Ukraine wants. Last weekend, the hard-right Alternative for Germany party, known as AfD, stormed to victory in the Saxony-Anhalt state elections on a platform of ending assistance for Ukraine...

Vladimir Putin has not changed his war aims a jot since 2022 and remains determined on fighting on. Donald Trump has no new plan for peace other than bringing the Ukraine war to an end on Putin’s terms. And Kyiv is running out of money and men to defend itself, just as surely as it has already run out of Patriot interceptors to defend its skies against the Kremlin’s barrages. Those are the three depressing takeaways from the latest round of shuttle diplomacy in Moscow and Kyiv by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff. On the eve...

When a group of European officials arrived in Kyiv to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day last month, they got some worrying news. The European Union, a key backer, had earlier this year finalized a loan of more than $100 billion for the country. But Ukraine now faced an unexpectedly large defense budget shortfall, President Volodymyr Zelensky told allies. To get through the year, he would need $27 billion more. Europeans understand Ukraine is in a fight for its existence but did not expect such a large budget shortfall, according to four European diplomats who, like others quoted in this piece, spoke...

Public sentiment is turning against Zelensky amid corruption concerns and weariness with his rule. For most of his presidency and especially since Russia launched its full-scale war, Ukrainian voters have rallied around Volodymyr Zelensky as a pillar of national resilience and unity. That’s for good reason: But now, after more than seven years in office, four and a half years of war with Russia, and a series of scandals involving his leadership team and close friends, Zelensky appears to have lost the nation’s political support. Indeed, polling published in early August points to a major mood swing among Ukrainians, suggesting...

... A Ukrainian arms factory had supplied the military with thousands of defective mortar rounds. But even as the officials noticed that weapons were arriving faulty, Ukraine’s Defense Procurement Agency continued to award Mr. Shyman’s factory new contracts. Seven of Ukraine’s top 10 military contractors won new business despite open criminal investigations for fraud, failures to deliver on earlier deals or the arrest of chief executives for corruption. Companies won contracts without demonstrating that they could supply the weapons, or without licenses to deliver them. Auditors identified 18 companies that signed deals despite defaulting on previous agreements. Six of those...

Zelensky warns every airline using Russian airspace, every insurer, everyone using key Russian airports: Russian skies are becoming completely unsafe. Ukraine says it doesn't threaten civilian aviation, but "drones in Russian skies will be such that this must be taken into account." He warns Russian airspace "will de facto be closed — the war Russia started is closing its skies." Ukraine's foreign ministry will brief international bodies. "There are no more safe moments in Russian skies. Civilian aviation has no place among drones."

Russia is shipping parts for drones, missiles and explosives to Iran to replenish its weapons stockpiles decimated by US and Israeli airstrikes during the war, according to a new report. More than two dozen Russian ships, many of them under US and European sanctions, traveled across the Caspian Sea to deliver the arms to Iran’s port in Amirabad, NBC News reported, citing documents and a Western official. While the development demonstrates Moscow and Tehran’s deepening alliance, it also proves that the US-Israeli strikes against Iran’s production plants have been largely successful, Jim Lamson, a former CIA analyst, told the outlet....

The Russian foreign minister said he feels sorry for the UK if it stays with Ukraine until the very endMOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Moscow is entitled to consider British missile forces' involvement in strikes on Russia as direct participation in the conflict in Ukraine, with all ensuing consequences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. "You know, I feel sorry for the UK if it stays with Ukraine until the very end," Lavrov told Vesti journalist Pavel Zarubin. "President [Vladimir Putin] warned of our right to act in any part of the world's oceans if anyone encroaches on our interests or...

Andrey Klepach, one of Russia’s top economists, has been replaced as chief economist of the country’s national development bank shortly after a speech was made public in which he reportedly said Russia’s economy was being damaged by the war in Ukraine. Russia’s state news agency TASS confirmed Sunday that Klepach “no longer holds the position of chief economist at VEB,” one of Russia’s largest banks, but did not give a reason for his departure. A new candidate has been selected and will be appointed soon, TASS added. VEB repeated the same statement to CNN. That announcement came two days after...

Ukraine on Sunday launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Russia since the start of the war, firing hundreds of drones and killing at least six people. A separate attack sparked a fire at a warehouse owned by the Russian online retail giant Wildberries in the town of Podolsk.

State-owned VEB.RF (Vnesheconombank) has stated that Russia cannot win the economic confrontation with the West as long as Western countries continue to support Ukraine. According to him, the Russian economy is facing rising costs, falling investment, and technological lag, reports The Moscow Times. The bank's chief economist, Andrei Klepach, said during a session of the Nikitsky Club that sanctions and the Western blockade are increasing the costs of the Russian economy, and that Ukrainian strikes on ports, infrastructure, chemical plants, and oil refineries are causing ever-greater damage to Russia. Klepach stated that Russia is losing the technological and economic competition...

Kazakhstan's president might be inviting Putin to shove him off an open window

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine has just a tenth of interceptor missiles it needs from the US to defend itself from Russia’s increased ballistic missile attacks. CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh reports from Kyiv.

The Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman stressed that Russian armed forces were capable of significantly extending their operations beyond the borders of the Black Sea basinMOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. Russia has the right to attack any merchant ship in neutral waters if it is transporting cargo in the interests of the enemy, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev stated. "The vast majority of Western European ships also sail under flags of convenience. So what does that mean? It means that, guided by a fair, symmetrical approach, Russia has the right to attack any merchant vessel of an enemy country...

Russia’s Supreme Court on Monday barred the liberal Yabloko party from contesting September’s parliamentary elections, sidelining the only officially registered party that opposes Moscow’s war in Ukraine. More than four years after Russia launched its full-scale war, the decision highlights the authorities’ intolerance of anti-war views and further narrows the already limited space for dissent in Russian politics. “Excluding Yabloko from the election means refusing dialogue with people who ask questions that are uncomfortable for the authorities,” Nikolai Rybakov, the party’s leader, said, vowing to appeal the decision.

Russia launched a massive strike on Odesa overnight, according to Ukrainian emergency services. The strikes caused extensive damage and fires in several districts of the city, they said. Preliminary reports indicate eight people were injured. A block of flats and two houses were set alight. Meanwhile, in Kharkiv, firefighters rescued seven people from the upper floors of a high-rise building after Russian strikes caused floors to collapse between the 7th and 10th floors.

Terrifying footage shows a Russian drone hunting a street vendor in Ukraine – as Moscow intensifies its drone and missile attacks against the country. The nerve-wracking video, which has sparked allegations of war crimes from Ukrainian officials, shows a vegetable vendor being chased around his van stand by the low-flying craft before it explodes just as he dives behind his vehicle. The vendor, a man in his 50s, survived the blast but suffered shock and shrapnel injuries, officials said. An explosion occurring between two vehicles, with the Ukrainian National Police emblem visible in the corner.A Russian drone taunted and hunted...

The House Foreign Affairs subcommittee chair invoked nearly $200 billion in U.S. support as attacks around Kazakhstan’s principal oil-export route forced production cuts and sharpened questions about Europe’s response. Representative Bill Huizenga has warned that further strikes affecting the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal will not be tolerated, explicitly linking Ukraine’s obligation to protect legitimate allied energy exports with the scale of American support for Kyiv. Huizenga, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, was asked by The Times of Central Asia what immediate diplomatic steps the administration should take to safeguard Kazakhstan’s...

Summary Russian officials say at least seven people, including three children, have been killed by a Ukrainian drone on a beach in south-west Russia - BBC Verify examines footage It's not clear if the drone was intercepted before landing on the beach. It has been reported it may have been targeting a Russian naval base about 25 miles (40 km) away - Ukraine has not commented The area has long been a favourite of Russian holidaymakers, says our Europe reporter Earlier, an apparent Ukrainian drone strike hit a warehouse belonging to Russia's largest online retailer Wildberries, around 112 miles east...

In April 2026, the Russian military lost 116 km²: this is the first monthly decline recorded by the Institute for the Study of War since the summer of 2023, when the territory controlled by Moscow had reached an all-time low of 26,573 km² following Kyiv’s counter-offensive